** Ednaswap

WACKO MAGNETO

(Island)

This wonderfully packaged CD is made up in the image of a vintage pinball machine, complete with a tiny silver ball that rolls along the spine. If only the album were as good. Ambitious, cinematic, and somewhat tortured, Ednaswap are a female-fronted LA-based guitar-powered outfit trying a little too hard to be both commercial and full of fury. Guitarist Rusty Anderson has good taste in voicings and textures, and that gives a nice psychedelic edge to the heavier tunes -- "Clown Show" fuses a Beatlesque verse with a chorus reminiscent of Cheap Trick. A couple of the quieter moments (the beginning of "Silver Hill," the end of "Violin Song") are also effective, but that's mainly because Previn has toned down her affected vocals.

-- Peter Travis